U.S. patent number 10,891,661 [Application Number 14/941,173] was granted by the patent office on 2021-01-12 for automatic generation of electronic advertising messages.
This patent grant is currently assigned to 2KDirect, LLC. The grantee listed for this patent is 2KDirect, LLC. Invention is credited to Joe Bonzi, Jason Brown, Shane Thomas.
United States Patent |
10,891,661 |
Bonzi , et al. |
January 12, 2021 |
Automatic generation of electronic advertising messages
Abstract
A facility for generating an advertising message is described.
The facility extracts visual content from a model web page. The
facility then constructs an advertising message that contains the
extracted visual content.
Inventors: |
Bonzi; Joe (San Luis Obispo,
CA), Thomas; Shane (San Luis Obispo, CA), Brown;
Jason (San Luis Obispo, CA) |
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
2KDirect, LLC |
San Luis Obispo |
CA |
US |
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Assignee: |
2KDirect, LLC (San Luis Obispo,
CA)
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Family
ID: |
1000005296823 |
Appl.
No.: |
14/941,173 |
Filed: |
November 13, 2015 |
Prior Publication Data
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Document
Identifier |
Publication Date |
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US 20160307238 A1 |
Oct 20, 2016 |
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Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
Issue Date |
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14673035 |
Mar 30, 2015 |
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12018056 |
Jan 22, 2008 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q
30/02 (20130101); H04L 67/02 (20130101); G06Q
30/0276 (20130101); G06Q 30/0277 (20130101); G06Q
30/0269 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G06Q
30/00 (20120101); G06Q 30/02 (20120101); H04L
29/08 (20060101) |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
Other References
IPromote--How It Works, http://ipromote.com/works.asp, 1 pg.,
Internet accessed Jan. 22, 2008. cited by applicant .
International Search Report and Written Opinion; International
Patent Application No. PCT/US09/31614; Filed: Jan. 21, 2009;
Applicant: 2KDirect, LLC; dated Mar. 3, 2009. cited by applicant
.
"SNAP Preview Anywhere Adoption Skyrockets As Web Publishers and
Bloggers Embrace Ability to Include Previews on Sites", SNAP for
Immediate Release. Pasadena, California, Dec. 18, 2006, 2 pages.
cited by applicant .
"snap.com Announces Snap Shots", blog.snap.com. San Francisco,
California, Apr. 16, 2007. Available at
<http://blog.snap.com/2007/04/16/snapcom-announces-snap-shots>,
5 pages. [Last Accessed: Oct. 19, 2008]. cited by
applicant.
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Primary Examiner: Brown; Alvin L
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Perkins Coie LLP
Parent Case Text
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS(S)
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.
No. 14/673,035, entitled "AUTOMATIC GENERATION OF ELECTRONIC
ADVERTISING MESSAGES" and filed on Mar. 30, 2015, which is a
continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/018,056,
entitled "AUTOMATIC GENERATION OF ELECTRONIC ADVERTISING MESSAGES"
and filed on Jan. 22, 2008, the disclosures of which are
incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
Claims
We claim:
1. A method in a computing system for generating an advertising
message, comprising: receiving a URL corresponding to a web page;
without any user input: using the received URL to retrieve HTML
source code of the web page; matching patterns in the retrieved
HTML source code of the web page to identify in the retrieved HTML
source code of the web page information specifying visual features
of the web page, wherein the identified information specifying
visual features of the web page comprises: one or more HTML
attributes, and corresponding values for the one or more HTML
attributes; and constructing a plurality of advertising messages
each incorporating at least a portion of the visual features of the
web page specified by the identified information; and after the
plurality of advertising messages have been constructed, providing
at least one of the constructed advertising messages in response to
an opportunity to present an advertising message on the web page
and at least one page other than the web page; presenting at least
one of the constructed advertising messages to a user, together
with a user interface for modifying the at least one constructed
advertising message; receiving user input manipulating the user
interface, wherein receiving user input manipulating the user
interface comprises receiving, from a user, an image, from a
gallery of images each extracted from the web page, dragged by the
user to a target drop region of the user interface; and modifying
the at least one constructed advertising message in accordance with
the received user input, wherein modifying the at least one
constructed advertising message in accordance with the received
user input comprises incorporating the image, from the gallery of
images extracted from the web page, dragged by the user to the
target drop region of the user interface, into the constructed
advertising message.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: previewing at least
one of the constructed advertising messages; and providing a user
interface usable by a user to modify at least one of the
constructed advertising messages.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising launching an
advertising campaign for presenting at least one of the constructed
advertising messages on publisher web pages.
4. A method in a computing system for generating an advertising
message, comprising: extracting visual content from a model web
page; constructing an advertising message that contains the
extracted visual content; receiving, from a user, an image, from a
gallery of images each extracted from the model web page, dragged
by the user to a target drop region of a user interface for
modifying the constructed advertising message; and modifying the at
least one constructed advertising message in accordance with the
received user input, wherein modifying the at least one constructed
advertising message in accordance with the received user input
comprises incorporating the image, from the gallery of images each
extracted from the model web page, dragged by the user to the
target drop region of the user interface, into the constructed
advertising message.
5. The method of claim 4, further comprising extracting audio
content from the model web page, and wherein the constructed
advertising message contains the extracted audio content.
6. The method of claim 4 wherein the extracted visual content
comprises text in a first format so that the constructed
advertising message contains text in the first format.
7. The method of claim 4 wherein the extracted visual content
comprises text in a first color so that the constructed advertising
message contains text in the first color.
8. The method of claim 4 wherein the extracted visual content
comprises a first background color so that the constructed
advertising message contains the first background color.
9. The method of claim 4 wherein the extracted visual content
comprises an image.
10. The method of claim 4 wherein the extracted visual content
comprises a video sequence.
11. The method of claim 4 wherein the extracted visual content
comprises a plurality of images, and wherein the constructed
advertising message contains an interface for navigating among the
extracted plurality of images.
12. The method of claim 4 wherein the constructed advertising
message contains a link to the model web page.
13. The method of claim 4, further comprising receiving user input
user identifying the model web page, wherein the extracting and
constructing are performed in response to receiving user input user
identifying the model web page, without receiving any further user
input.
14. The method of claim 4 wherein the extracting comprises: parsing
HTML source for the model web page to identify tags each matching
one of a set of sought tag types; and for each of the identified
tags, adding an asset to the constructed advertising message that
corresponds to the identified tag.
15. The method of claim 4 wherein the extracting comprises: parsing
HTML source for the model web page to identify strings each
matching one of a set of sought regular expressions; and for each
of the identified string, adding an asset to the constructed
advertising message that corresponds to the identified string.
16. The method of claim 4, further comprising extracting visual
content from one or more pages linked to from the model web page,
and wherein the constructed advertising message contains the visual
content extracted from the pages linked to from the model web
page.
17. The method of claim 4 wherein the extracting comprises: sending
a visual content request to a publisher of the model web page; and
receiving from the publisher a visual content response containing
the extracted visual content.
18. The method of claim 4, further comprising receiving user input
generated by a user's operation of a control on the model web page
for constructing an advertising message that is based on the model
web page, and wherein the extracting is performed in response to
the user input generated by the user's operation of the
control.
19. The method of claim 4, further comprising receiving input from
a user selecting the visual content to be extracted from the model
web page.
20. The method of claim 4, further comprising receiving user input
specifying payment information to be used to pay for presentation
of the constructed advertising message.
21. The method of claim 4, further comprising presenting the
constructed advertising message among content published by a
publisher.
22. A computing system for generating an advertising message,
comprising: a processor; a memory; an extraction subsystem that
extracts content from a model web page; an advertising message
construction subsystem that constructs an advertising message
containing the extracted content, wherein each subsystem comprises
computer-readable instructions stored in the memory for execution
by the processor; and an advertising message modifying subsystem
that, receives from a user, an image, from a gallery of images each
extracted from the model web page, dragged by the user to a target
drop region of a user interface, and modifies the constructed
advertising message by incorporating the image, from the gallery of
images extracted from the model web page, into the constructed
advertising message.
23. A computer-readable hardware device whose contents cause a
computing system to perform a method for generating an advertising
message, the method comprising: extracting visual content from a
model web page; constructing an advertising message that includes
the extracted visual content; receiving user input manipulating a
user interface, wherein receiving user input manipulating the user
interface comprises receiving, from a user, an image, from a
gallery of images each extracted from the model web page, dragged
by the user to a target drop region of the user interface; and
modifying the at least one constructed advertising message in
accordance with the received user input, wherein modifying the at
least one constructed advertising message in accordance with the
received user input comprises incorporating the image, from the
gallery of images extracted from the model web page, into the
constructed advertising message.
24. The method of claim 1, wherein constructing at least one
advertising message of the plurality of advertising messages
comprises: constructing an XML definition of the at least one
advertising message employing one or more of the identified visual
features of the web page.
25. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one constructed
advertising message contains a play control for playing time-index
materials associated with the at least one constructed advertising
message, wherein the at least one constructed advertising message
contains a pause control for pausing time-index materials
associated with the at least one constructed advertising message,
wherein the time-index materials associated with the at least one
constructed advertising message comprise an image slide show.
26. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one constructed
advertising message contains a play control for playing time-index
materials associated with the at least one constructed advertising
message, wherein the at least one constructed advertising message
contains a pause control for pausing time-index materials
associated with the at least one constructed advertising message,
wherein the time-index materials associated with the at least one
constructed advertising message comprise an audio sequence.
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD
The described technology is directed to the field of automatic
generation of electronic advertising messages, and more
particularly, to the field of online advertising.
BACKGROUND
The world wide web ("the web") permits companies and individuals to
electronically publish content in the form of web pages that can be
retrieved and displayed using a browser program running on a client
computer system. Such "publishers" often sell to advertisers
opportunities to present advertising messages together with their
published content.
For example, an advertiser who is a music publisher may purchase
opportunities to present an advertising message promoting a new
music CD published by the publisher. The advertising message may be
"rich" in a variety of ways. They may, for example, include text
identifying the title of the CD and the responsible artist in a
style that is visually compatible with an appealing background
pattern and/or color, a series of multiple photos of the artist, a
link to a web page on which the user can listen to the artist's
music and purchase the CD, etc.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a high-level data flow diagram showing data flow within a
typical arrangement of components used to provide the facility.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing some of the components typically
incorporated in at least some of the computer systems and other
devices on which the facility executes.
FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that shows steps typically performed by
the facility in order to automatically generate one or more
advertising messages.
FIG. 4 is a display diagram showing a sample page containing a
control that the user may activate in order to generate advertising
messages based upon the sample page.
FIG. 5 is a flow diagram showing steps performed by the facility in
some embodiments in order to identify assets employed in the model
page.
FIG. 6 is a table diagram showing sample contents of a listing
table used by some embodiments of the facility to map from groups
of model web pages to a listing ID specifying a set of parsing
instructions to use to parse model web pages of the group.
FIG. 7 is a table diagram showing sample contents of a parsing
instructions table used by the facility in some embodiments to
specify a set of parsing instructions to use to parse a model web
page
FIG. 8 is a display diagram showing a sample preview display
presented by the facility.
FIG. 9 is a display diagram showing a typical display presented by
the facility to enable the user to modify advertising messages
generated by the facility.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The inventors have recognized that the kind of rich advertising
messages described above often require specialized expertise and
significant effort to generate. The inventors have further
recognized that these substantial requirements for effectively
generating rich advertising messages tend to limit the availability
of such rich advertising messages to a relatively small number of
sophisticated, well-funded advertisers who are in a position to
satisfy those requirements. The inventors have further recognized
that, if less expertise and effort was required to effectively
generate rich advertising message, rich advertising messages would
become available to a much wider population of advertisers.
A software facility for automatically generating electronic
advertising messages ("the facility") is described. The facility
uses an existing web page--sometimes referred to as the "model web
page"--as a basis for automatically generating an advertising
message, such as a display advertising message. For example, the
facility may use as the model web page the web page to which the
advertising message will be linked, the advertiser's home page, or
another page having both the content and the look and feel desired
for the generated advertising message.
The facility extracts elements such as background and text colors,
textual content, and rich media from the model web page and
populated into the advertising message. In some embodiments, the
extraction is fully automatic. In some embodiments, the facility
guides the user through selecting in the page the elements to be
extracted. In some embodiments, the facility presents a user
interface that the user may use to modify the advertising message
generated by the facility.
In some embodiments, in connection with generating the advertising
message, the facility enables its user to arrange to have the
generated advertising message presented by one or more
publishers.
By automatically generating advertising messages in some or all of
the ways described above, the facility enables a user without
specialized expertise to quickly and straightforwardly generate an
effective rich advertising message, making rich advertising
messages available to a much wider population of advertisers.
FIG. 1 is a high-level data flow diagram showing data flow within a
typical arrangement of components used to provide the facility. A
number of web client computer systems 110 that are under user
control generate and send page view requests 231 to one or more
logical web servers 100 via a network such as the Internet 120.
Within the web server, these requests may either all be routed to a
single web server computer system, or may be loaded-balanced among
a number of web server computer systems. The web server typically
replies to each with a served page 132. Web servers 100 may include
web servers operated by publishers of web pages that present
advertising messages, are linked to from advertising messages, or
both. Web servers 100 may also include one or more web servers
implementing aspects of the facility.
While various embodiments are described in terms of the environment
described above, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the
facility may be implemented in a variety of other environments
including a single, monolithic computer system, as well as various
other combinations of computer systems or similar devices connected
in various ways. In various embodiments, a variety of computing
systems or other different client devices may be used in place of
the web client computer systems, such as mobile phones, personal
digital assistants, televisions and associated video sources,
cameras, etc.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing some of the components typically
incorporated in at least some of the computer systems and other
devices on which the facility executes. These computer systems and
devices 200 may include one or more central processing units
("CPUs") 201 for executing computer programs; a computer memory 202
for storing programs and data while they are being used; a
persistent storage device 203, such as a hard drive for
persistently storing programs and data; a computer-readable media
drive 204, such as a CD-ROM drive, for reading programs and data
stored on a computer-readable medium; and a network connection 205
for connecting the computer system to other computer systems, such
as via the Internet. While computer systems configured as described
above are typically used to support the operation of the facility,
those skilled in the art will appreciate that the facility may be
implemented using devices of various types and configurations, and
having various components.
FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that shows steps typically performed by
the facility in order to automatically generate one or more
advertising messages. In step 301, the facility receives user input
identifying a model page upon which to base the generated
advertising messages. The user input typically identifies the model
page by specifying its URL, and can be received from the user in a
variety of ways. In some embodiments, the facility serves a web
page (not shown) to the user, and asks the user to type or paste
the URL of the model page into a model page URL field. In some
embodiments, the operator of the facility works with one or more
publishers to cause an advertising message generation control to be
incorporated in a number of different potential model pages.
FIG. 4 is a display diagram showing a sample page containing a
control that the user may activate in order to generate advertising
messages based upon the sample page. The sample page 400 has a
variety of contents, including the name 401 of an auto dealer
selling a car; text 402 identifying the car; the listing price 403
for the car; and the city 404 in which the auto dealer is located.
The model page also includes a number of thumbnail images 411-414,
any of which the user can select to display at a larger size in
space 410. The facility includes a number of colors, including the
color of a logo 421, the color of the background 422, the color of
the background of the selected tab 423, and the color of text such
as text 414. In some embodiments, the extraction performed by the
facility in step 301 extracts all of the above-discussed visual
features. In a variety of embodiments, the facility extracts
various other combinations of features contained by the page.
The page also contains control 450 that the user may activate in
order to generate advertising messages for this page. In some
embodiments, this control is included only in instances of the page
served to a user who is the "owner" of the page, in this case a
user associated with the auto dealer that is selling the car. In
some embodiments, activation of this control causes the user's
browser to send a request or other communication to a server on
which aspects of the facility are executing. This communication
contains the URL of the page, or some other basis for identifying
the page such as a page ID.
Returning to FIG. 3, in step 302, the facility identifies assets
employed in the model page, such as those described above in
connection with FIG. 4. In some cases, this involves copying text,
fonts, or colors that appear in the HTML code for the model page.
In some cases, it involves copying references to external resources
that are incorporated in the page, such as the URLs for each of the
full-size versions of images 411-414, video or audio files, flash
animations, etc. In some embodiments, the facility performs step
302 by retrieving a copy of the web page using its URL, and parsing
the web page to extract tags, tag attributes, tag values, and other
content expected to be relevant to the page.
FIG. 5 is a flow diagram showing steps performed by the facility in
some embodiments in order to identify assets employed in the model
page. In step 501, the facility uses the URL of the model web page
to identify any listing table a listing ID to which the model web
page corresponds.
FIG. 6 is a table diagram showing sample contents of a listing
table used by some embodiments of the facility to map from groups
of model web pages to a listing ID specifying a set of parsing
instructions to use to parse model web pages of the group. The
listing table 600 is made up of rows, such as row 611, each
corresponding to one of the groups of model web pages. Each row is
divided into the following columns: a listing ID column 601; a
target site column 602 identifying the domain of web pages in this
group; a product category identifying the category of item that is
described by the Web pages in this group; and a version number that
indicates a particular version of parsing instructions constructed
for this group of web pages. With respect to the sample model web
page, the facility uses the listing table to determine that listing
ID one should be used, based upon the URL of the model web page
being in the cars.com domain, the model web page corresponding to
product category 11 for automobiles, and version number 1 being the
largest version for that combination of target site and product
category in the listing table.
Returning to FIG. 5, in step 502, the facility selects the rows of
the parsing instructions table having a listing ID identified in
step 501.
FIG. 7 is a table diagram showing sample contents of a parsing
instructions table used by the facility in some embodiments to
specify a set of parsing instructions to use to parse a model web
page. The parsing instructions table 700 is made up of rows, such
as rows 711-719, each corresponding to the parsing instruction for
one property to be extracted from the model web page. Each row is
divided into the following columns: a listing ID column 701 in
which the facility matches the listing ID identified in step 501; a
property name column 702 specifying a name attributed to the
feature to be extracted from the model web page; a count column 703
indicating the maximum number of matching features to extract from
the model web page for the property; a container element column 704
specifying a type of tag to be matched for the property; a
container class column 705 specifying a particular class of the
container element to be matched; a container attribute column 706
specifying a particular attribute of the matching tag whose value
is to be copied; a search expression column 707 specifying a
regular expression to be matched by the copied text; and it and
ignore case column 708 specifying whether the search expression in
column 707 is to be treated as case insensitive. Typically, the
rows of the parsing instructions table corresponding to a
particular listing are generated by a human agent based upon a
review of the HTML source for a sample of pages published by a
publisher.
In steps 503-505, the facility loops through each row of the
parsing instructions table selected in step 502. In step 504, the
facility extracts one or more features from the HTML source for the
model web page in accordance with the parsing instructions
contained in the row. In step 505, if additional selected rows of
the parsing instructions table remain to be processed, then the
facility continues in step 503 to process the next selected row,
else these steps conclude. In some embodiments (not shown), the
facility similarly applies the parsing instructions to pages linked
to from the model web page. In some embodiments, links are only
followed for this purpose if they identify a URL in the same domain
as the model web page. In some embodiments (not shown), the
facility similarly applies the parsing instructions recursively in
this manner, up to a predetermined maximum depth, such as
three.
The application of the sample contents shown in the parsing
instructions table 700 is discussed below in connection with the
HTML source for the sample model web page shown below in Table
1.
TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 1. <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD
XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 2.
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> 3.
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> 4. <!--
Memberdata.zip=`93401` --> 5. <!-- end: _MemberPhone.jsp 6.
MemberPhone=`866-277-8981` 7. isTollFree=`true` 8.
sessionScope.useTollFree=`false` 9. --> 10. <head> 11.
<title> 2006 Honda Odyssey EX-L</title> 12. <meta
name="description" content=""/> 13. <meta name="keywords"
content=""/> 14. <header_color val="0x562cab" /> 15.
<background_color val="0xffffff"/> 16. <title_font_color
val="0xf5812c"/> 17. <body_font_color val="0x888888"/> 18.
<img class="photo_1" name="tnImg0" id="tnImg0"
src="http://images.cars.com/thumbnail/DMI/25289/11517.jpg" alt=""
onerror="document.getElementById(`tn0`).style.display=`none`;"/>
19. <img class="photo_2" name="tnImg1" id="tnImg1"
src="http://images.cars.com/thumbnail/DMI/25289/11517.02.jpg"
alt="" onerror="document.getElementById(`tn1`).style.display=
`none`;"/> 20. <img class="photo_3" name="tnImg2" id="tnImg2"
src="http://images.cars.com/thumbnail/DMI/25289/11517.03.jpg"
alt="" onerror="document.getElementById(`tn2`).style.display=
`none`;"/> 21. <h1> 22. 2006 Honda Odyssey EX-L - <span
class="Price">$27,967</span> <span id="mdFlag"
class="nwListOn"></span> 23. </h1> 24. <span
class="label">Member_Name</span> <span class="data">
Toyota of Santa Maria</span> 25. function clearValue(field) {
26. if(field.value.indexOf("Enter Your Message Here") != -1){ 27.
field.value = ``; 28. field.style.color = `#333333`; 29. <div
id="aboutSellerBox" class="Dealer"> 30. <h2>About the
Dealer</h2> 31. <div id="sellerAddress"> 32. <div
class="dataPoint"> 33. <span class="member_name">Toyota of
Santa Maria</span> 34. </div> 35. <div
class="dataPoint"> 36. <span class="phone">866-277-8981
37. <img
src="http://a137.g.akamai.net/n/137/3538/20060217221024/www.
cars.com/search/images/phone_Icon.gif"/> 38. </div> 39.
<div class="address"> 40. <span class="Location"> 41.
700 East Betteravia Road 42. Santa Maria 43. CA 44. </span>
45. </body> 46. </html>
To process row 711 of the parsing instructions table, the facility
searches the HTML source for the first-occurring span tag having
the class member name, which it finds in line 33. Because row 711
does not specify a particular attribute of the span tag whose value
is to be copied, the facility copies the content of the tag,
"Toyota of Santa Maria." To process row 712 of the parsing
instructions table, the facility searches the HTML source for the
first-occurring title tag, which it finds in line 11. The facility
copies the content of the tag, "2006 Conduct Odyssey EX-L." To
process 713, the facility searches for the first-occurring span tag
having the class location, which it finds in line 40. In accordance
with the search expression specified in row 713, the facility
copies the text between the first and second new-line character in
the content of the tag, i.e., "Santa Maria." To process row 714,
the facility searches for the first-occurring span tag having the
class price which it finds in line 22, and copies the content of
the tag, "$27,967." To process row 715, the facility searches for
the first-occurring three img tags whose src attribute has a value
matching the search expression specified in row 715. These
occurrences are in lines 18, 19, and 20, from each of which the
facility copies the URL text. To process row 716, the facility
searches for the first-occurring header_color tag which it finds in
line 14, and copies the value of the val attribute, "0x562cab." To
process row 717, the facility searches for the first-occurring
background_color tag which it finds in line 15, and copies the
value of the val attribute, "0xffffff." To process row 718, the
facility searches for the first-occurring title_font_color tag
which it finds in line 16, and copies the value of the val
attribute, "0xf5812c." To process row 719, the facility searches
for the first-occurring body_font_color tag which it finds in line
17, and copies the value of the val attribute, "0x888888."
In various embodiments, the facility uses a wide variety of regular
expression schemes to specify the search expressions contained in
column 707, including but not limited to those used by the
Microsoft Visual Basic scripting language and the PHP hypertext
processor. In some embodiments, the grammar used by the facility
has one or more of the following characteristics: Vertical Bar, |,
is used to separate alternatives. For example, http://|https:// can
match "http://" or "https://". Parentheses are used to define the
scope and precedence of operators. For example, gray|grey and
gr(a|e)y are equivalent patterns which both describe the set of
"gray" and "grey". The {circumflex over ( )} character, contained
in brackets [ ] means "not". In these examples, [{circumflex over (
)}''] means, "match all characters that are NOT a double quote". A
quantifier after a token (such as a character) or group specifies
how often that preceding element is allowed to occur. The question
mark quantifier indicates there is zero or one of the preceding
element. For example, colou?r matches both "color" and "colour".
The asterisk quantifier indicates there are zero or more of the
preceding element. For example, ab*c matches "ac", "abc", "abbc",
"abbbc", and so on. The plus-sign quantifier indicates that one or
more of the elements preceding it must exist. In these examples,
[{circumflex over ( )}'']+ means that there must exist one or more
characters in this spot that is not the double-quote character.
Additional examples of search expression pattern matching follow.
The examples assume that the HTML source for the model web page is
that shown below in Table 2.
TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 1. <img
src="http://www.images.com/images/user/small/
4773237b783nxgh34.jpg"> 2. <img
src="http://www.images.com/images/user/small/
4773237b783nxgh34.gif"> 3. <img
src="http://www.images.com/images/user/medium/ 94987348745.jpg">
4. <img src="https://www.images.com/images/user/medium/
aksdfulSJSIVK.gif"> 5. <img
src="https://www.images.com/images/user/large/
aksdfulSJSIVK.jpg"> 6. <img
src="https://www.images.com/images/user/large/
Iskvisljghi83248498.gif
A first example is a search expression that returns only .jpg
images of any size:
(http://|https://)www.images.com/images/user/(small|medium|large)/[{circu-
mflex over ( )}'']+.jpg
This search expression returns the URLs in lines 1, 3, and 5. A
second example is a search expression that returns only
medium-sized .jpg images:
(http://|https://)www.images.com/images/user/medium/[{circumfle- x
over ( )}'']+.jpg
This search expression returns the URL in line 3. A third example
is a search expression that returns only non-secure (http) .jpg and
.gif images of any size:
(http://www.images.com/images/user/(small|medium|large)/[{circumflex
over ( )}'']+.(jpg|gif)
This search expression returns the URLs in lines 1, 2, and 3.
In some embodiments, the operator of the facility makes
arrangements with one or more web publishers under which the web
publishers make available a direct interface that may be called by
the facility to directly retrieve information about the assets
employed in any page published by the publisher. In such
embodiments, step 302 involves sending a request to the publisher's
interface that identifies the model page, such as by providing a
URL or page ID for the page. The publisher responds with a response
that contains the assets to be incorporated in the generated
advertising message that makes it unnecessary to parse the HTML
source for the model page in order to obtain this information.
In some embodiments, the publisher includes source for the
advertising message generation control in the model web page that,
when the control is activated, causes the browser to post to a
server executing portions of the facility information identifying
the assets to be incorporated in the generated advertising message.
Here too, it is unnecessary for the facility to parse the HTML
source for the model page in order to obtain this information.
In step 303, the facility retrieves assets identified in step 302
that are external to the page, such as images, video and audio
streams, animations, etc.
In some embodiments, the facility generates multiple different
advertising messages in response to each user request. These
different advertising messages, referred to as "advertising message
configurations," can correspond to various advertising message
dimensions, media types, maximum or target data sizes and/or data
rates, etc. For example, the Interactive Advertising Bureau
provides specifications for different standard advertising message
types, such as at
www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/1421/1443/1473/81563
and www.iab.net/iab_products_and_industry_services/1421/1443/1452.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various other
advertising message configurations may be supported by the
facility.
In step 304-309, the facility loops through each of the advertising
message configurations it supports. In step 305, the facility
appropriately sizes and stores copies of assets identified in step
302 in a manner appropriate for the dimensions and other attributes
of the current advertising message configuration. For text assets,
this may include cropping the text and/or changing or setting its
size. For images, video streams, etc., this can involve cropping,
zooming, panning, etc. In step 306, the facility constructs an XML
definition of the advertising message employing the assets as sized
in step 305. A sample XML definition is shown below in Table 3 that
corresponds to the HTML source shown in Table 1.
TABLE-US-00003 TABLE 3 1. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"
?> 2. <listing version="1" xmlns="http://xspf.org/ns/0/">
3. <product> 4. <member_name val="Toyota of Santa Maria"
/> 5. <is_dark val="1" /> 6. <is_background_dark
val="1" /> 7. <title val="2006 Honda Odyssey EX-L " /> 8.
<description val=" " /> 9. <category val="11" /> 10.
<location val="Santa Maria " /> 11. <price
val="$27,967.00" /> 12. <account_photo val="" /> 13.
<number_of_photos val="3" /> 14. <photo_1
val="http://images.cars.com/main/DMI/25289/11517. jpg" /> 15.
<photo_2 val="http://images.cars.com/main/DMI/25289/11517.02.
jpg" /> 16. <photo_3
val="http://images.cars.com/main/DMI/25289/11517.03. jpg" /> 17.
<condition val="" /> 18. <header_color val="0x562cab"
/> 19. <background_color val="0xffffff" /> 20.
<title_font_color val="0xf5812c" /> 21. <body_font_color
val="0x888888" /> 22. <ipromote_url
val="http://www.cars.com/go/search/detail.jsp;?tracktype=
usedcc&searchType=21&pageNumber=0&numResultsPerPage=
50&largeNumResults 23.
PerPage=0&sortorder=descending&sortfield=PRICE+
descending&certifiedOnly=false&criteria=
K-%7CE-%7CM-_18_%7CD-_215_%7CN-N%7 24.
CR-30%7Cl-1%7CP-PRICE+descending%7CQ-descending%7CZ-
93401&aff=national&paId=250149140&recnum=0&leadExists=
true" /> 25. </product> 26. </listing>
The dealer name extracted from line 24 of Table 1 is included on
line 4 of Table 3. The title text extracted from line 11 of Table 1
is included at line 7 of Table 3. The dealer location extracted
from line 42 of Table 1 is included at line 10 of Table 3. The
price extracted from line 22 of Table 1 is included at line 11 of
Table 3. The image URLs extracted from lines 18-20 of Table 1 are
included at lines 14-16 of Table 3. The color values extracted from
lines 14-17 of Table 1 are included at lines 18-21 of Table 3. In
step 307, the facility parses the XML definition constructed in
step 306 to obtain an XML tree. In step 308, the facility uses the
tree obtained in step 307 to construct the advertising message. In
some embodiments, in step 306, the facility constructs a Macromedia
Flash file having the ".swf" file name extension. The constructed
Flash file contains a reference to the XML tree that causes an
action receipt included in the Flash file to load the XML tree and
use it as a basis for presenting the advertising message. In some
embodiments, the facility includes in the generated advertising
message a link that viewers of the advertising message can activate
to display the model web page, or another web page specified by the
user. In step 309, if additional advertising message configurations
remain to be processed, then the facility continues in step 304 to
process the next advertising message configuration, else the
facility continues in step 310.
In step 310, the facility displays a preview of one or more of the
generated advertising messages. In step 311, the facility enables
the user to modify the generated advertising messages.
FIG. 8 is a display diagram showing a sample preview display
presented by the facility. The display 800 includes a preview of
one of the advertising messages generated for the model page shown
in FIG. 4. The advertising message preview 810 includes elements
from the model page, including an image 811 cropped from image 410
and/or image 411 shown in the model page, text 812 identifying the
car, text 813 identifying the auto dealer, text 814 identifying the
location of the auto dealer, and logo 815 for the publisher web
site. The advertising message preview further includes a control
816 for traversing a link to the model web page. The advertising
message preview further incorporates colors and/or fonts from the
model page.
The page further includes a control 821 that the user can activate
in order to display the different advertising messages generated by
the facility for the different advertising message configurations.
The display also includes a control 822 that the user can activate
in order to modify the generated advertising message or advertising
messages.
FIG. 9 is a display diagram showing a typical display presented by
the facility when the user activates the change advertising message
control shown in FIG. 8. The user interface presents a copy 910 of
the generated advertising message. The advertising message is
accompanied by play and pause controls 911 and 912, respectively,
that the user can use to play and pause time-index materials
associated with the advertising message, such as image slide shows,
video/audio sequences, animations, etc. Panel 920 represents
different types of modifications that the user may make to the
advertising message. The user may select any of controls 931-934 to
select different visual effects to be applied to the advertising
message, including panning, image carousel, video scanning, etc.
The user may also drag to spaces 941-943 any images that the user
wishes to have incorporated in the advertising message. The user
may drag to these spots any of the images 944-947 shown on the left
side of the display. The user may also select tab 948 in order to
display video clips that can be dragged to the spots for inclusion
in the advertising message, or tab 949 to display audio clips that
can be included in the advertising message by dragging them to an
audio spot 944. Further, the user can activate control 950 in order
to directly upload media of virtually any type for inclusion in the
advertising message. The display further includes text fields 951,
953, 955, and 957 whose contents the user may edit for inclusion in
the advertising message. Each text field is accompanied by a show
check box 952, 954, 956, and 958 that the user may check or uncheck
to determine whether the corresponding text will appear in the
advertising message. The display further includes four colors
961-964 used in the advertising message. The user may select any of
those in order to change it. In some embodiments, the user can type
a new color value after selecting one of the colors. In some
embodiments, when the user selects a color, the facility presents a
color picker user interface that the user may navigate in order to
select a new color value for the selected color (not shown). After
the user has made desired modifications, the user selects a save
changes control 971. If the user wishes to revert to the
originally-generated advertising message, the user can select the
cancel control 972 to return to the display shown in FIG. 8 without
making any changes.
Returning to FIG. 3, in step 312, the facility receives information
from the user about targeting the advertising message, specifying
its duration, and providing billing information. In step 313, the
facility activates the advertising messages in accordance with the
information specified by the user. After step 313, these steps
conclude.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the steps shown in
FIG. 3 may be altered in a variety of ways. For example, the order
of the steps may be rearranged; substeps may be performed in
parallel; shown steps may be omitted, or other steps may be
included; etc.
Returning to FIG. 8, the display 800 includes a control 821 usable
by the user to specify a geographic region to which the advertising
message is to be targeted. In various embodiments (not shown), the
facility permits the user to specify a variety of other types of
targeting, including behavioral targeting, profile-based targeting,
and specific publisher or publisher group targeting. The display
also contains an indication 822 of the cost to the advertiser each
time a user clicks through the generated advertising message. The
display further includes a control 823 that the user may use in
order to specify a daily budget for the advertising message.
Typically, when the daily budget is reached during a particular
day, the advertising message is not presented again until the next
day. The display also includes a control 824 that the user can use
to specify a duration for presenting the advertising message. The
display also includes controls for specifying billing information
used to pay for presenting the advertising message, including
address information 831, credit card information 832, and an
indication 833 of whether the billing information should be saved
as a basis for presenting future advertising messages. After the
user is satisfied with the information that the user has specified
in connection with the generated advertising message, the user
selects control 841 in order to activate the advertising message.
If the user has decided against activating the advertising message,
the user can select a skip control 842.
In some embodiments, the facility provides a mechanism for the user
to download the generated and/or modified advertising messages and
associated resources. In some embodiments, the facility provides a
mechanism for providing the generated and/or modified advertising
messages directly from the facility to a third-party advertising
agency or ad serving service provider.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the
above-described facility may be straightforwardly adapted or
extended in various ways. For example, the facility may generate
advertising messages from model pages having a wide variety of file
types and/or formats. The facility may extract a wide variety of
kinds of content from the model page, and be used in conjunction
with a variety of user interfaces for modifying and/or activating
generated advertising messages. While the foregoing description
makes reference to particular embodiments, the scope of the
invention is defined solely by the claims that follow and the
elements recited therein.
* * * * *
References